Grave vault



Jan. 10, 1933.

GRAVE VAULT Filed July 27, 1931 J. W. POWELL ET AL ganar/ INVENTORS ATTORNEYS Patented Jan. 10, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JAMES W. POWELL AND JACOB R. BURKHARDT, 0F SPRINGFIELD', OHIO, ASSIGNORS TO THE SPRINGFIELD METALLIC GASKET COMPANY1 PORATION OF OHIO OF SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, A COR- GRAVE VAULT Application filed July 27, 1931. Serial No. 553,242.

This invention relates to burial vaults of the type in which the body of the vault is separable from the bottom thereof, with provision for automatically locking the two members together, the invention particularly relating to such locking devices.

The vault shown is one of the raised bottom type in which the body of the vault is supported on a depressed shelf of a separate raised bottom member. In this type of vault it is usual to provide means for automatically locking the body to the vault. In shipping such a vault it has been usual to render the automatic looking devices ineffectual for locking purposes during transportation by holding the automatic latches in retracted position in various ways. It is desirable however, that the vault be shipped with the body thereof locked to the bottom and it is an object of this invention to provide means operable from the exterior of the vault whereby the two members of the vault may be locked together during shipment and readily unlocked after the vault has reached its destination, with provision of holding the locking devices in inoperative position and `again restoring the same to operative position.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a grave vault embodying the improvements.

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged bottom plan view of a portion of the vault bottom and one of the locking devices.

Referring to the drawing, l represents the body of the vault and 2 the bottom. The side edges of the bottom are bent downwardly as indicated at 2 and thence outwardly to form marginal shelves 2, while the lower edges of the body l are flared outwardly and then bent inwardly and upwardly as indicated at 1 to form stiifened edge portions which rest upon the shelves 2, this arrangement being a usual construction in grave vaults.

It is also usual in this type of vault to provide a plurality of automatic locks to lock the vault body and its bottom together, after the same have been lowered into the grave. Each vof these automatic locks consists of a latch 3 which is slidably mounted in a housing t secured in any suitable way to the under side of the bottom 2, with a coil spring 5 interposed between the latch and the inner end of the housing to normally project the latch out through an opening 6 in the vertical portion 2 of the bottom, the outer end -of the latch being inclined as shown so that the lower edge of the vault body will press the latch inwardly suiliciently to clear the same and be enga-ged thereby as the spring presses the latch outwardly.

In order to provide for releasing these latches when desired, holding them in retracted position, and again restoring the same to latching position, the following construction has been devised:

Pivotally mounted upon a bracket 7 secured to one side of the housing 4 is a lever '8, one arm of which has an open notch 9 in one edge thereof which cooperates with a pin 10 projecting downwardly from the latch and through a slot 11 in the bottom of the housing to hold the latch in retracted position. To operate the lever there is pivotally connected to the other arm thereof a bar 12 which projects through an aperture in a foot member 13 secured to the end side of the shelf 2" of the bottom of the vault, these foot members serving to support the vault. The outer end of the bar 12 has a bent curved portion l2 to form a finger piece and the inner end thereof is offset as shown to bring it in proper association with the lever 8.

In operation, when the latch 3 is in latching position, the lever 8 and bar 12 occupy the dotted line position shown in Fig. 4. If, now, it is desired to unlock the body of the vault from the bottom the bar 12 is pulled outwardly to the full line position of Fig. 4, lcausing the lever 8 by acting upon the pin 10, to push the latch to the inner end of the housing at which point the pin will fall into the notch 9 and retain the latch in retracted position with the spring 5 under compression. The lever 8 acts to hold the latch in this position by reason of the fact that the pin 10 will be forced in close frictional engagement with one wall of the slot 11 and any tendency of the pin to swing the lever under the action of the spring 5 is resisted by the inner wall of the notch due to the fact that the path of movement of this wall of the notch is on an are of a circle which intersects a portion of the pin 10; the path of the pin being indicated by the broken line a and the path of the wall of the notch being indicated by the broken line b in Fig. 2.

To release the bolts it is only necessary to push in the bar 12, which swings the lever 8 suiciently to disengage the notch from the pin 10 after which the spring 5 projects the bolt to its latching position.

By this arrangement the vault body may be locked to the bottom of the vault during shipment and at the end of the destination, when it is desired to remove the body of the vault from the bottom thereof, all of the bars 12 are drawn outwardly until the latches are all retracted and automatically held in retracted position, after which the vault body may be readily lifted off of the bottom. When it is desired to place the latch 3 again in latching position, it is only necessary to push in the bars 12 to release the bolts in the manner described.

Having thus described our invention we claim: y

1. In a grave vault consisting of a body portion and a raised bottom having a downwardly extending vertical wall having its lower edge out-turned, a spring-pressed latch carried by the under side of said bottom and normally projected through an aperture in said vertical Wall to engage the lower edge of the body portion and lock the same to the bottom, a lever pivotally mounted on the under side of said bottom having a notch, a pin projecting from said latch in the path of movement of said lever, and a bar slidably carried by said bottom and pivotally connected to said lever to operate said lever to retract the latch to cause the pin to engage the notch to hold the latch in retracted posiltion and to again operate thc said lever to release said latch.

2. In a grave vault consisting of a body portion and a raised bottom having a downwardly extending vertical wall with its lower edge outturned, a slidable spring-pressed latch carried by the under side of said bottom and normally projected through an aperturey in said vertical wall to engage the lower edge of the body portion and lock the same to the bottom, a lever pivotally mounted on the under side of said bottom, a pin projecting from said latch in the path of movement of said lever and engageable thereby, and a bar slidably carried by said bottom and pivotally connected to said lever, said bar extending to an outer side of said vault beneath the outturned lower edge of said vertical wall. n n

3. In a grave vault consisting of a body portion and a raised bottom having a downwardly extending vertical wall with its lower edge outturned, a spring-pressed latch carried by the under side of said bottom and normally projected through an aperture in said vertical Wall to engage the lower edge of the body portion and lock the same to the bottom, an apertured foot-like member on the under side of the outturned lower edge of said vertical wall, a slidable bar mounted in the aperture of said foot-like member, and means operated by said bar for rendering said spring-pressed latch ineil'ective and effective to permit the vault members to be separated and again automatically latched together.

4. In a grave vault consisting of two separable members, a latch mounted to slide horizontally carried by one member to latch the other member thereto, a spring for projecting said latch to latching position, a movable element to retract said latch against the tension of its spring and automatically hold the same in retracted position, and a horizontally movable operating device connected with said element and extending to an outer side of said vault and adapted when moved in one direction to cause said element to retract and lock said latch and when moved in the opposite direction to cause said elcment to release said latch.

5. In a grave vault consisting of two separable members, a spring projected latch carried by one member to latch the other member thereto, a pivoted lever carried by said firstmentioned member, an operating device accessible from an outer side of said wall for operating said lever, and means for interengaging said lever with said latch when moved by said operating device in one direction to retract and hold said latch in retracted position, said lever when moved by said operating device in the opposite direction being caused to release said latch.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands this 24th day of July 1931.

JAMES W. POWELL. JACOB R. BURKHARDT. 

